Journey guitarist
Neil Schon -- who burst into the gossip landscape last week when erstwhile "Real Housewife of D.C."
Michaele Salahi disappeared from her Virginia home, then surfaced by his side in Nashville -- says his newly-revealed relationship with Salahi is "like a fairy tale."

"I'm very happy, very happy after waiting for her for 15 years," says Schon in an
interview with the Daily Beast. "Now I want to get beyond all this media hype that Tareq has put out there. It's really quite embarrassing."

Schon is referring to Michaele's husband,
Tareq Salahi -- who along with his wife -- famously crashed a 2010 White House state dinner.

We'd just like to point out that Michaele -- with no coercion on the part of her soon-to-be-ex of which we're aware -- once gave the false impression that she had been a Redskins cheerleader, was kicked off of "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew" for lack of an addiction and generally has zero problem creating her own "media hype."